New
Buffett CD Released

Jimmy
Buffett’s latest CD, “Take the Weather With You,” landed on store shelves
on Tuesday, October 10th. The collection of 14 songs (4 written by
Buffett) features Greg “Fingers” Taylor on harmonica for the first time
since 1999’s “Beach House on the Moon” (more on Fingers later). The CD
also showcases Mark Knopfler, Wil Kimbrough & Sonny Landreth on guitar; Jake
Shimabukuro on ukulele; Billy Payne on keyboards; and, of course, the usual
suspects from the Coral Reefer Band are back after a one-CD hiatus. For
you Buffett purists out there, this should be an enjoyable CD.

So you’ve got that
urge to purge and see your name in lights? ABC-TV’s Wife Swap
wants to feature the ultimate Parrot Head family! At Wife Swap,
they are looking for families that can not only learn something, but teach
something as well. Families must have two parents and at least one child between
the ages of 6-18 still living at home. Families selected will receive $20,000.
If you’re interested, send
Michelle
Silva an e-mail.

Update
on Fingers Taylor

Rumors are running
rampant about the return of Greg “Fingers” Taylor to the Coral Reefer Band
line-up. He has already made several sporadic appearances throughout the current
tour, showing up on stage to perform for only a few songs. He also makes a brief
showing on Buffett’s latest CD appearing on 4 tracks. Now his management is
saying that Greg cannot commit to anything in the first half of 2007 until he
knows for sure whether or not Buffett takes him back. For those of you attending
Meeting of the Minds in Key West next month, Greg will be appearing all over the
place.

(see below for a new
interview with Fingers)

9th
Annual Endless Carnival Announced

For the ninth
consecutive year, the Sandlapper PHC will host their Endless Carnival Party on
Saturday, November 11th from 6 – 11 pm. The party will take place
at the Holiday Inn in Rock Hill and will feature several bands throughout the
evening including the Briar Creek Band, the Fabulous Table Dawgs and Jon Durham.
Tickets for the event are $10.00 and include a raffle ticket for the grand prize
drawing (prize TBA). Proceeds will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association of Rock
Hill so c’mon out and Party With a Purpose!!! TicketInfo

2006
Meeting of the Minds

The 15th
annual Meeting of the Minds, this year’s convention is called Island Daze,
is set for next month on the Isle of Bones, Cayo Hueso, or Key West as most
visitors know her. From Halloween through November 5th the tiny
island’s population will increase by close to 3700 people as Parrot Heads from
all over the country descend on the Keys for this annual rite of passage. This
year’s headlining act is Jerry Jeff Walker, scheduled to perform on the lawn
of the Casa Marina Resort on Thursday November 2nd with Keith Sykes
and Larry Joe Taylor opening (no guarantees, but given the history between the
two, don’t be surprised to see Buffett make an appearance with Walker that
evening).

Other highlights of
the convention will be the annual Halloween Party at the Conch Republic Seafood
Co. (Tuesday, October 31st) hosted by the Palmetto PHC of Columbia,
SC. Party goes from 6 – 9 pm and features the Sunny Jim White Band with Stan
the Man on maracas; the Peter Mayer Group and Scott Kirby on Friday, November 3rd
at the Casa Marina; the All Day beach Bash at the Casa Marina on Saturday,
November 4th featuring the Sunny Jim Band, Jimmy Maraventano &
Second Wind, the Boat Drunks and Jim Morris and the Big Bamboo Band; and finally
on the last day of the convention, Sunday, November 5th, Sunny Jim
will host his annual songwriter’s showcase at the Blue Heaven, featuring most
of the performers who are still on the island.

In a blender, combine
all ingredients except the 151 with crushed ice. Blend at a high speed until
smooth and pour into a Collins glass. Float the 151 rum on top and garnish with
an orange slice and maraschino cherry.

Chance
meeting makes for chance of a lifetime

In
1972, Greg Taylor, then a communications student at University of Southern
Mississippi in Hattiesburg, made his way to the student union to check out an
unknown folk singer named Jimmy Buffett. A burgeoning harmonica player with a
penchant for sitting in with musicians who were passing through, Taylor
carried a harp in his pocket.

"I
had no idea who he was. And he was in what they called the Union Building,
which was basically some mail boxes and Coke machines and a broken down PA
system and a couple of folding chairs. He was singing 'Why Don't We Get Drunk
and... ' for three little old ladies on a break from nightclass, and I thought
that was one of the weirdest things I'd ever seen in my life," said
Taylor.

After
chatting a bit, the two men sat down together that evening to play.

"He
asked me to come back the next night, and the next night we sold the place
out. And the night after that," said Taylor/

And
so began a long and fruitful association between a man who would one day
become a legend, and another whose skill earned him the nickname
"Fingers."

Greg
"Fingers" Taylor, 54, a master harmonica player who spent his
formative years in Jackson and who cut his teeth on Delta blues, returns to
South Mississippi to perform 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday at High Cotton (5 Pass
Rd., Gulfport, 424-8418) with the Detroit-based band, Doug Deming and the
Jewel Tones. Admission is $10 at the door, and you must be 21 to attend.

"When
I moved to Detroit about nine years ago, I went out searching for a band. I
wanted to find me a good blues band around town, and I found Doug Deming and
his outfit. We became friends, and played a lot of gigs here in Detroit and on
the road. We work together whenever we can," said Taylor.

Earlier
this week, Greg Taylor, who lives in Oxford, Michigan, and who is the proud
father of two sons, Steven, 7, and Hunter, 8, spoke with the Sun Herald by
phone. Here, then, are excerpts from that conversation.

So
what have you been up to?

"I
got my own little circle of things that I do. I still do a lot of parrothead
stuff. I'll be out in Vegas soon. Playing with several of the parrothead bands
out there watching Buffett. He does his Vegas show this year at the MGM Grand.

Buffett
was reportedly detained last week after French authorities say they discovered
about 100 pills of Ecstacy in his bags. Any thoughts on that you want to
share?

"I
don't know what was going on. I heard about that the other day, too. But who
knows?

When
did you first learn harmonica, and why?

"Well,
when I was about 11 or 12 or 13, the Beatles came out. There was quite a deal.
In '64, me and my friends, we loved the music, used to buy little 45 r.p.m.
records, back in Wichita, Kansas... .A lot of the English bands were very
astute at copying the old black R&B performers. Of course the Beatles went
on to make a lot of their own music as well. Also, we were three shy little
boys from Wichita, Kansas, and we'd go to these dances, and we were too shy to
meet the girls. And we noticed that the guys in the band always had plenty of
girls around them. So we put our heads together, got us some instruments and
got a band together."

How
did you end up with the harmonica?

"I'm
not quite sure. I remember we were having a battle of the bands, playing every
weekend. And one weekend the band that beat us, the guy, he noodled around on
the harmonica a little bit and it seemed to excite the crowd. And I thought it
sounded pretty cool. Wasn't long after that I started listening to Muddy
Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, all the greats. The Chicago and
Mississippi blues harmonica players. I fell in love with all that stuff. Muddy
Waters, Robert Johnson, the stuff that comes out of the Mississippi Delta.

Looking
back, does it strike you as ironic that here was a boy who spent years in
Mississippi, and then gets this from the Beatles, who are from England. But
they got the music, some of it, from Mississippi. So it's just a big circle,
almost?

"Well,
if it wasn't for the Brits and all the bands during that era, we would have
never realized what we had in our own backyard. And I'll be eternally grateful
for that, because from there I kind of delved a little deeper and got into the
Delta blues musicians and the Chicago players."

Did
you joust have at it? Or eventually learn a few cords on harmonica? Did you
learn the scales, or just kind of messed around?

"I'd
taken a few piano lessons, at my mom's request, when I was younger. Of course
I had a little old lady, who banged me across the knuckles with a ruler and
stuff like that, trying to get me to play (stuff). I could never do it that
way... .I did most of it just from listening to those records, playing along
with them. And I had the great good fortune to actually play with a lot of the
older guys, being down in Mississippi... .I always hung out a lot with Stevie
Ray Vaughn, and Jimmie Vaughn, and Kim Wilson and all the Austin guys. They've
been a part of my musical education, too."

And
your background with Buffett?

"Buffett
called me into Nashville (about 1975) when he got his recording contract with
ABC Dunhill, and I started making albums with him back then. I think we ended
up making about 30 or 35 albums....The brand new one should be out any day
now. I got to work on that again. I left him, I was gone between 2001 up until
recently. And I played with him 2 or 3 times on his tour this year. I'm going
to Vegas here in about a week, probably play with him at the MGM. So we're
kind of getting it back together. We took a little hiatus from each
other."

So
from the mid-'70s through 2001, you were playing with him most of the time on
tour, or sporadically, off and on?

"No,
that was pretty solid there. From the end of '74, early '75, right in there.
Until we formed the actual Coral Reefer Band. And that's when the real road
work began."

Back
at USM, at that student union, did you ever envision that the whole parrothead
thing, the whole genre of music that y'all were kind of solidifying there, did
you ever think it'd be that big?

"No,
not really. I knew that when we played together, it was something special. But
we just kind of let the whole thing take us by the tail, and we just went on
along. And whatever happened just led from one thing to another... .Around
(1989-90), I remember looking out at the crowd with him one day before the
show, and he said, 'I still don't understand what happened, Fingers.' And I
said, 'I don't either. Really, what did we do except do the same things we'd
always done?' And of course he turned out to be a marketing genius, and just a
very prolific songwriter and personality who wins the hearts of people. So,
he's been a lucky guy. We were all lucky, to be along for the ride. That's for
sure.

Buffett Plays for Kinky

Alright, get yer
minds out of the gutter folks….dat be Kinky Friedman of Texas Jew Boy fame.
He’s running for guv’nah of Texas and has enlisted Buffett’s help in the
campaign. Jimmy played an 18 song set for the future leader of the Lone Star
state on September 19th. Here below is the setlist from that night: